No doubt you went through a fair few Kleenex's while writing that North paragraph.

I imagine Gambier saw two very different Premier League teams on the weekend.

Flames men are going to embarrass Mavs this Friday night unless its a compete turnaround from round one! Womens game should be a low scoring non enjoyable netball game at best.

Sturt women to inflict North's first PL loss since 2017

Fair chance North still win the night on aggregate points.

True Blue, I think I can maybe assist. To develop players, to work within a reasonable budget in the best interest of club stakeholders.

This is conversely opposite to what seems to be most club's game plans for senior programs.

Most programs seem to be driven by keeping thier substandard senior coaches happy. Preferring to bring in expensive players from overseas, recruit players from other clubs, at the expense of developing players and satisfying their club's stakeholders, who are paying for this endeavour.

Distinct from poaching juniors in years gone by. Sturt are slipping and when you have a name synonymous with Sturt move to Tigers to play PL you know something is wrong in Sabre land

True blue let me help you out as well.
It would appear Sturt refuse to move with the times as basketballs profile continues to rise again and will continue to use "player development" as the reason they obviously have a very hard time bringing in sponsors, quality imports and cant seem to attract any decent players or recruit to save themselves due to the incredibly poor program and teams they put on the floor in our states Premier competition.
Maybe the Sturt coach is "substandard" and the amazing junior development at Sturt isnt good enough to even compete in this competition.
Guess its all about perspective.
A winning culture and opportunities for championships do wonders for development as well.

Don't even mention Sturt in the same sentence as Mavs. At least Casella has had success at some level compared to Warhust who couldn't win a game of solitaire against himself.

Your right, dont believe you.
I totally agree that PL budgets cant come straight from the juniors, but some of it can. Am sure some clubs abuse this but the case that the clubs highest level / profile teams should be propped up can also be made and makes sense. See the SANFL, the PL football equilevent.
Most clubs have a modest amount given to their two PL teams from the clubs and then raise more through sponsors and fundraising.
If Sturt have such an array of sponsors then why arent they attempting to keep up?
Success at this level rarely if ever has come from just promoting your clubs juniors, as honourable as that is, but a combo of recruited talent and juniors.
Why have Sturt, with so many "sponsors", failed to bring in at least two decent imports like the rest of the clubs.
As mentioned, and i am not pointing the finger at Tony as i am sure he would like more to work with, it just appears Sturt is refusing to move forward with the times.

For us uninitiated who was the player synonymous with Sturt who moved?

How does this "winning culture and opportunities" that you speak of help the club?

Look at Forestville and Southern who have been the leaders of the Men's PL arms race. 2 GF played in juniors over the summer season in;

16 Boys D7 &
18 Boys D5.

Please explain to me how any benefit from their Men’s PL spending helps the “winning culture and opportunities” for the club.

So those juniors how provide $ to the senior PL programs get exactly what benefit?

We’ve seen this time and again. Clubs going broke to try and win a competition which doesn’t contribute any $ back to the club. Sturt May poach juniors, just like all clubs, but at least those people pay fees which gives back.

If your only criteria's are Junior success, more a reflection of junior coaching than PL success, and how much money the fees bring in I imagine you dont see the bigger picture.
Heres a few benefits.
Raised profile and growth of both the sport in SA and the club itself therefore generating bigger junior numbers, more bums on seats and revenue for clubs private bars and canteens, more interest from fans and potential sponsors who actually see a high level product they get excited about and will support. Did I mention actually growing the sport instead of sitting stagnent for another decade. Worth another mention.
"Clubs going broke" comments are a fear campaign holding the growth back. The sport will not grow because junior teams are successful, it will grow from its premier competition and the grassroots will flourish if the premier competition profile grows.

Just sick of seeing the sport I love constantly seen as the forgotten child in SA sport.
I may not like alot about the current "arms race" but the potential for growth in the current climate of the return of the NBL to a larger stage should not be ignored.

Lol ^^ is this for real.

How is a club paying players big money to come and play so the senior coaches are not complaining about helping grow the game???

The attendance at PL games are mostly the relatives and friends of the players and very low %age of juniors and their families. The %age of "fans" outside the club environment is negligable, so how does spending obscene amounts of money help grow the game?

Crowd numbers are steadily low at PL level regardless of the quality players in the league.

Give your players a pathway, develop them and help them grow. Stop recruiting over them, not developing them and that will grow the game. Help your kids play at the highest level they possibly can, that will grow the game.

All I see at some clubs are junior players going backwards each year and then been recruited over at PL level. That is not growing the game and it is NOT developing the game at all.

I'm sick of terrible coaching and player development at junior level, leading to a terrible competition, that sees players getting frustrated and moving to other sports, or to overseas high schools and then at the end of been treated like this they also get recruited over at PL level, with THEIR OWN MONEY.

Go out on a Friday night and watch a junior Forestville, Woodville or Southern girls/boys team play and come back and tell me the money they are blowing is good for the ame.

Throw West in that mix.

At least North and Norwood have it right at both ends of their pathway. They're the exeptions rather than the rule.

Sturt is looking to the future. A future with their own multi court stadium and juniors who leave the nest to better things. That's their job and they take it seriously, more than a championship. It’s just a transition period, all clubs and teams have periods like this. It’s normal folks. I would be concentrating on finding the truth about what is really happening at other clubs. All is not what it seems so go find the truth elsewhere. Sturt’s doing just fine.

Anyone who thinks that PL or even NBL success has anything to do with junior numbers is just blatantly wrong.

Growth of the sport occurs when time, effort and money is put into junior player recruitment and competitions.

No one watches PL, and because it's never going to be on TV, sponsors aren’t putting in significant dollars. Sturt May have lots of signs up, but I will guarantee that half of them can’t paid anything in 10 years and the club just can’t be bothered pulling them down.

I Guess country regions should stop playing the sport because they have no premier competition, as should ACT, Tasmania and lots of other places.

Certainly hope you aren’t ever involved at committee level at my club.

I would disagree with that comment about Norwood having both ends of their program correct.

Yes they have some decent junior teams but that's more a case of the massive numbers they have than a good junior program. Probably hard to see unless you've been inside the club.

Attraction, retention and development.
Maybe Norwood ticks the first 2 boxes but not the 3rd one.

There are clubs mentioned above spending significant amounts of money that tick none of the boxes. THIS IS NOT GOOD FOR GROWTH OF THE GAME NOR DEVELOPMENT. It is not perspective. It is fact.

Stop strangling the sport in South Australia for your own incompetent egos.

Put some time, effort, skills, energy and resources into attraction, retention and development. Play the long game, not the short game. Then when that is done pay what you need to bring in players to fill the odd whole or the elite player that have been through your program. NOW, THAT IS GOOD FOR THE GAME!!!

Anon #874

Please find 1 person who isn't already into Basketball that goes out to their local PL game and thinks, "wow, my u10 kid should play for Forestville even though we live at Gawler"!!!

PL and not even NBL matter in any way to club or sport growth.

During the Period when the NBL was nearly going under every year, when NBL crowd numbers were down and the 6ers were terrible and finishing bottom. Clubs were increasing in size, adding full time staff and creating domestic competitons.

One has no correlation to the other!

Hang Time By Adam Jones & Daniel Renfrey - Just a plain joke! They don't even do their homework and boost the teams they want to talk about and probably get brownie points with. Don't quit your day job!

Clubs spending big money on Premier League are only it in for short term glory and its not sustainable in this environment.

The money has to eventually have a negative impact on Clubs junior programs.

Southern have just sent every member a letter advising a debt levy to be paid on top of regular fees to bring finances back under control.

Three years of Premier League success at all costs and look who has to pay for it. The Junior Parents.

Financial mismanagement at its worst.

What a mess. Everyone saw this coming 4 years ago.

Southern have now appointed an independent auditor to get the current mess sorted out.

Hopefully with greater oversight, controls and accountability the current situation can be turned around.

Source?

All members have been advised of the situation.

An independent Auditor has no relationship with the club, it's sponsors, it’s committee or it’s players. Has that been confirmed ?

I just want to understand how the committee can continue to write cheques when it was obvious they had financial issues

The financial problems stem from a very different issue though. As is clearly spelled out in the letter to the members.

Southern's President who created this mess was removed from the Committee a few months ago so its the new guy who has to make the tough calls to rectify it.

Was the current president on the board previously?

Also does it matter from where the financial issues arose. If you have financial issues it impacts all parts of the club!

southerns current president was their previous junior president

he is a very good operator

any decent independent auditor would be advising the club to cut the ridiculous wage paid to nyberg

Auditor or administrator?

Didn't want to write about the women?

Evidently not. Problem?

Wanted to see if the trash clueless takes you had on the men carried over to the women.

So....back to the games hey.
Sturt in trouble tonight and West v Southern should be good.

Why Sturt in trouble tonight?
West v Southern
West should easily win. Import Southern should not play. What you think, guys?

Turnage has been here a while. I expect he will play.

What about women's games?

Tell us what you think champ

Big signings for South if true!

Would imagine honorable Sturt will be in trouble as they lost by 40 to Gambier who lost by 20 to North, Sturts opponant tonight.

Sturt knows where they are at. Core mature players retired or work commitments have changed, many to college, other plans for funds for future proofing club and expansion, lost others to Southern, 1 via Norwood, take a guess why that occurred. Players know it's tough but embracing it and working hard. They know the score so keep banging on, it’s nothing they don’t already know.

Wow, I thought the politician ran Norwood not Sturt!!!

So players like Caligeros and Burns with family ties to Sturt's management committee were not convinced staying there was in their best interests?!?

I doubt it is money - apparently Tigers have none

A president may step down admirably because an issue happened under their watch. It does not mean they were the ones who committed an offence. There is always an entire committee who are qualified in their field and take on roles who should take ownership and search for the truth and pass on to outside truly independent auditors and authorities. Just moving on is not good enough. Everything is not as it seems.

If a player wants to hedge their bets and play two sports at local elite level the. Some clubs will say no if it impacts on their ability to train. What is wrong with that. There are many clubs in many codes that would do the same.

So breaking down last nights results and predictions above.

Someone predicts Southern will win. Southern lose by 20 pts.
Someone predicts Sturt will lose by 60. Loses by 14 pts.

Outside of Sam Johns who has gone backwards over the past 3 years from where he was predicted, there are no signs of any meaningful contribution outside of the Sturt additions, imports and 6ers.

Why can't they play the long game? The one that involves the long hard grind but leads to much greater success for the sport and their club?
Are there some missing pieces out there in terms of capabilities and skillsets on the coaching side of things? Is it an issue of values and a lack of understanding on what it takes?